Non-league Football

Concord vets’ fury at Roots Hall blow

CONCORD’S Veterans team have criticised the decision to suspend them from appearing in the final of the Charity Cup by the Southend Borough Combination Veterans League.

The Beachboys, in their final season of playing together, were due to play Railway Academicals in the showpiece game at Roots Hall last month, but the match
did not go ahead.

League chairman Les Fordham said Concord had been suspended because of a failure to send in their results cards from the semi-final and quarter-final of the competition, and the non-payment of the
subsequent fines.

Concord appealed against that decision to the Essex FA, and that appeal was upheld.

An FA spokesman said: “After assessing the evidence, our panel found the league had acted outside of their jurisdiction, so Concord’s appeal was upheld and we instructed the league to reinstate the
team into the competition.”

But Concord secretary Paul Leggett said that by then he was told by the league that it was too late to put the game on.

He added: “It’s all been handled very badly and we are very disappointed.

“This was the last season we are going to run the team, because many of our players are now a bit too old.

“So it is a real shame we did not get to finish on a high by playing at cup final at Roots Hall.”